Western Front
Battle of Valenciennes ends (see 1st and 3rd): Canadian Corps (c.380 casualties) captures Valenciennes and claiming 1,800 PoWs and 7 guns, and over 800 Germans killed.
Aisne and Meuse: Germans retreat before US I Corps which captures Buzancy and links with French Fourth Army.
Sambre: Mutiny of Eastern Front reinforcements for German Seventeenth Army; they have to be disarmed by a storm battalion.
French capture south bank of Canal des Ardennes between Semuy and Neuville.
Western Front, Air: First attempted ‘cloud’ (blind) bombing (using dead reckoning): lone D.H.9a of No 99 Squadron RAF drops 3 x 112lb bombs in area of Avricourt rail junction and nearby dump.
German prisoners are led down a street while French civilians watch:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...937811737845760
A wounded Canadian soldier being treated among the ruins of the Canal de l'Escaut:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...952917653782528
New Zealand soldiers inspecting a British tank that was captured and used by the Germans:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...983121256267776
French civilians at Suresnes watch a procession for fallen Allied soldiers as it enters the cemetery:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...013326045839364
Southern Front
Italian Front: Italian First Army begins advance, occupies Rovereto and Calliano in Adige valley (night November 1-2) and Col Santo. Italian Seventh Army begins advance west of Lake Garda, captures Mt Pari near it. First armistice meeting 2100-0300 hours (night November 2-3), Austrians reluctantly accept 24-hour delay for end of hostilities.
Third Battle of the Piave (aka
Battle of Vittorio Veneto): Austrian retreat in Venetian Alps and plain continued.
Italy: Allied Supreme War Council approves plan (until November 4) for up to 40 Italian divisions (including 5 British and French) to invade Bavaria from Innsbruck and Salzburg areas in early 1919 under Foch’s direction.
Allies enter Belluno.
Italian troops advance across the Assiago plateau:
https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...ebene.jpg?ssl=1
Italian troops continue their offensive in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, as the Austro-Hungarian Army collapses. Italian and British troops passing by abandoned Austro-Hungarian equipment:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...270021544116224
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Mesopotamia: William Marshall gets full armistice terms; General Cassels sees Ali Ihsan, arranges advance to within 2 miles of Mosul.
Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Mesopotamia William Marshall reads the proclamation of the armistice with the Ottoman Empire to his troops in Baghdad: © IWM (Q 56808):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...300198475182081
Naval and Overseas Operations
Mediterranean: Last British merchant vessels (S.S.
Surada and
Murcia) sunk by submarine.
Constantinople: Germans hand over U-boats to Turks.
Rhodesia: von Lettow bombards Fife in Northern Rhodesia but declines to assault (premature shell explodes mortar) while 1/4th King’s African Rifles 23 miles to east. Von Lettow advances into Northern Rhodesia with 400 cattle; at Mwenzo Mission increases quinine supply to over 30lb (enough to last to June 1919).
Political, etc
Austria: 69th Hungarian Infantry Regiment deserts Schoenbrunn Palace (Hungarian troops later officially allowed to go home) but Wiener Neustadt military cadets (military academies close) replace them. Emperor Charles refuses Archduke Joseph’s call to abdicate as King of Hungary.
Germany: Baltic: Mass meeting of 3rd Squadron sailors in Waldweisse meadow, Kiel. Stoker Karl Artelt urges men to persist for their imprisoned shipmates’ release and gain support from shipyard workers; 5 other speakers demand continuing resistance and refusal to obey orders (reactionary officers deserve to be ‘clubbed to death’), and an immediate end to war. Kiel Governor Admiral Souchon (of Goeben fame) attempts to disperse the crowd with 2 naval infantry coys, but both units refuse to open fire.
Paul von Hindenburg appeals for unity. Unions and industrialists demand demobilization office instead of Imperial Economic Office.
Poland: Polish Regency Council orders formation of regular Standing Army.
United Kingdom: Mass meeting of Trade Unionists in London to consider Labour's part in the Peace.
Turkey: Publication of armistice terms with Turkey.
Enver, Talaat and Djemal leave Constantinople in German naval ship for Ukraine.
United States: New York’s worst subway accident, the Malbone Street Wreck occurs in Brooklyn, resulting in around 93 deaths. (Another source says (97 killed, plus 100 injured). It is one of the deadliest train crashes in US history:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...058623925055490
Emerging States: Administration of Carniola taken over from the Austro-Hungarian authorities by Slovene leaders (see August 17th).